Splacer: Rent Your Space by the Hour

What is Splacer?

Splacer is a peer-to-peer rental site that rents homes, offices and other space by the hour to event managers, movie producers, party planners and others.

How it works:

If you have an apartment/home/studio/office/warehouse space that you think might serve as an appropriate venue, you can register on the site.

The registration process is relatively lengthy because the site will need to approve your listing. Thus, to get started, you’ll need to upload at least 5 photos; describe the space; set a price per hour for a range of activities; and plug in your preferences for type of events you’re willing to host, your availability schedule, and your house rules.

Assuming your location is approved, Splacer will allow you to upload more photos, plug in your banking information (to get paid) and will take your listing public.

If rented, you’ll get 85% of the rental rate. Splacer charges a 15% commission to the host and a 5% processing fee to the renter. The site collects the full amount of the booking upfront and puts the payment in escrow until the day after the event. You get paid within a week following the event by direct deposit.

Splacer review:

Splacer is set up almost identically to its competitor Peerspace. Both sites propose to rent your space by the hour to filmmakers, photographers and the hosts of events, such as weddings, bridal showers and corporate workshops.

Typically, property owners rent their space for $100 or more per hour. So a 12-hour rental (common for filming) would gross $1,200 or more. (And, you set the rate, so you can certainly charge more.)

You can also set minimum rentals — say, no rentals of less than four hours — and charge more based on the type of event that’s being booked. Add-ons for cleaning and site supervision also are allowed.

You have the ability to restrict the type of events you’re willing to host too. Don’t like the idea of hosting a party? Fine. You can restrict your listing to only accept photo and film shoots, corporate events or “pop-ups.”

In the end, this can be a highly lucrative side hustle if you happen to own a popular property.

Tough host cancellation policy

The major difference between Splacer and some of the other companies that offer the same rental service is that Spacer operates in fewer cities and is much less accepting of host cancellations.

Splacer imposes at least a $100 fee for any host cancellation within 30 days of an event. If hosts cancel more than one event in 6 months, the host and his or her venue will be booted from the platform.

The only exceptions to this rule are for “excused” cancellations, which involve the death of a host or a member of the host’s immediate family, a state of emergency, severe property damage that impacts the ability to use the space safely and acts of war.

To be sure, events that are booked at this site are not easily rescheduled. Cancelling on someone’s wedding or 50th anniversary party really ought to be rare. So you shouldn’t accept bookings unless you’re sure you can follow through.

But, other sites that rent space by the hour, including Giggster, Peerspace and Avvay, are a bit more forgiving.

Guest cancellations

Cancellation rules are considerably less strict for guests. However, hosts have the ability to say just how much less strict.

Splacer gives hosts three options for how to handle cancellations. They can have a “flexible” policy, which refunds everything but Splacer’s service fees for cancellations within two days of the event; a “moderate” policy, which allows cancellations within 5 days of an event; or a “strict” policy that gives the property owner 50% of the rental amount when cancellations are done within a week of the event.

It appears that there are no guest penalties for cancelling with more than a week’s notice.

Risks

Until late 2023, Splacer offered a $1 million liability policy to cover owners from liability. But the site withdrew this coverage for any booking after November 2023. So you need to address this risk on your own. (You also should collect a deposit to protect against property damage.)

Notably, don’t imagine that your homeowner’s insurance already covers you. Many homeowner’s policies exclude coverage when your home is being used for a commercial purpose — in other words, when you’re renting it out here. Make sure you talk to your insurance agent and understand any risk you might bear by renting through Splacer (or Airbnb, or any other site).

You can also require your renters to buy event or production insurance, which is highly recommended.

Recommendations

Renting your house out by the hour is an extremely lucrative side hustle. And it can be lots of fun too. (Our editor has rented her own home through Giggster and Peerspace numerous times — first to see how it worked for our reviews, and later because it was fun.) You can sign up with Splacer here. 

If you want to increase your chance of finding this type of rental, sign up with Peerspace,  Avvay and Giggster if they’re available in your area too.

What their users say (from Facebook)

I’m a host and have found the whole process super easy and the Splacer team have been really responsive. It’s a cool tool that I’ve recommended to mates too.

Awesome team! I have been a host on Splacer for two years now and have had nothing but wonderful experiences with the 10+ events I have hosted. Their team is professional and have been incredibly helpful any time I have had questions or feedback.

Updated 1/23/2025